A Beginner's Guide, Part 1, How do the pieces move?

A lot of people with an interest in chess dont ever follow through with that interest because chess is difficult, time consuming, and to a certain degree a pain! However, chess can be a very rewarding hobby. A major obstacle to beginner's getting these rewards, though, is starting out. Starting out studying chess and focusing on improving is probably the most difficult part about chess. However, with appropriate guidance, some of the worst obstacles can be overcome.

The first major obstacle in starting out playing chess is learning how the pieces move. It takes a while to get a handle on how the pieces move. Unfortunately, I will not be able to provide that much help in this area, as I learned how the pieces moved when I was very young. I dont really remember how it happened, it just happened. Also, I am somewhat doubtful anyone can provide much help. That said, Chess for Beginners is a nice looking site that could be helpful. Chess, the wikipedia article has some very nice diagrams that should get you started. [I was actually going to add some diagrams, but it would just be repeating information that is already thoroughly on the internet elsewhere.]

Really, though, there are no tricks to learning how the pieces move. You just have to make it part of your intuition, your subconscious. The best way to learn how the pieces move is simply to watch chess games and play chess games. Most Windows computers these days come with a program called Chess Titans. Playing a bunch of games on this program should help you figure out how the pieces move. Very helpfully, Chess Titans will not let you make illegal moves! This should help the beginner get a handle on how the pieces move.

If your computer does not have Chess Titans, you can get free chess programs off the internet that will do the same thing. I will discuss the various computer programs you can use in A Beginner's Guide, Part ??, Computer Chess Programs, but for now just use Arena. This is the program I will recommend, anyway, though other programs are worth looking at.

Even simpler, just visit Shredder, and you can play against the computer without even having to download anything.

As far as verbal cues as to how the pieces move, here is a very simple list that may help:

King: 1 square in any direction

Rook: Lines, up and down or side to side

Bishop: Diagonals

Queen: Can move like a Rook or a Bishop, both Lines and Diagonals

Knight: This is the trickiest piece. Moves in an L-shape and is the only piece that can jump over other pieces

Pawns: Also very tricky. Pawns can move 1 square forward, but cannot capture the 1 square forward. Pawns can capture two squares, diagonally to the right and diagonally to the left.

Pawns also have two special moves. The first is that a Pawn can move 2 squares forward on its first move. The second is something called en passant. As a beginner, dont worry about en passant until it comes up. It rarely comes up, and will just confuse you at these early stages.

So as can be seen, only the Knights and Pawns should give the beginner any trouble. The other pieces move in fairly straight forward ways. Just remember: King, 1 square in any direction; Queen, moves like a Rook and a Bishop; Rook, moves in straight lines up and down or side to side; Bishop, moves on the diaganol; Knight, tricky L Shape; Pawns, straight ahead 1 square, but captures ahead 1 square diagonally.

Reading over the above a few times should give you a fairly decent grasp on how the pieces move. You will probably forget, though. Dont worry about it. That is why you are using the computer, so it can remind you!

A last thing to mention is Castling. Just know that it exists, but dont worry about it too much at this stage. Even World Champion Candidates have difficulty with that one! [Korchnoi v. Karpov, look at the 18th move]. A beginner should not spend too much time worrying about it.

For more information about castling, read A Beginner's Guide, Part 4, Castling.

The best way to learn how the chess pieces move, and this is generally good advice, is to just ignore your own deficiencies. When you bungle some move, or you didnt see your opponent's threat, that is fine, and should be expected. You shouldnt fret about these inaccuracies. Instead just work on building up your intuitive vision. After you play and watch enough chess games, you will not make those mistakes anymore.

It is especially easy for adults to get frustrated when they screw up. This probably is the major reason children learn so much faster than adults, though I am no expert in this matter. Adults are more prone to getting frustrated and quitting, whereas children dont really even realize how hard something is and keep at it. It helps that children have tons of time.

I may be hitting you over the head too much with this, but seriously, do not get frustrated! Just play games over and over again and expect to lose. Your brain is an exceptional tool, and will do all of the learning for you, so long as you dont get in the way!

If you are a child, or if you are reading this because you want a child to learn the moves, it shouldnt be all that difficult, honestly. So long as they enjoy the game, they will probably just pick it up without even really thinking about it. I am not a parent, so I dont know much about raising children, but if the child is not interested in even learning the moves, maybe chess is not for them. Or, maybe it is just the wrong time.

If you are trying to force a child to learn the moves of chess, I would guess making it as fun as possible is the best way to go. Also, perhaps rather than forcing them to play chess, just prohibit them from doing other activities that you do not want them to do.

Saying, you can do whatever you want, but you cant watch TV or play video games, seems like it would be better than saying, we are going to sit here for an hour and you are going to learn how to play chess. The kid is probably going to want to do something, and so long as other things like TV and video games are eliminated, the kid will do something more productive.

Like I said, I am no parent, though, so I am not even sure why I am giving this advice. My advice seems to make sense, though, so more likely than not it is totally wrong! To all parents, good luck!

What a tangent. As a recap, the best way to learn how the chess pieces move is to play games of chess on the computer. The computer will not let you make illegal moves, so you will know instantly when you screw something up. Do not get frustrated if you miss a move by the computer and get checkmated or lose your queen. That is part of the learning process, and if you play enough of these games you will get the hang of it. Remember, you are playing to learn, not to win.